League joins forces to oppose badger cull

29 November 2010

In an unprecedented move, the League Against Cruel Sports has joined with wildlife rescue and conservation groups across the UK to fight the coalition government's proposed badger slaughter, and they have won the backing of some of the country's best known conservationists and campaigners - among them Sir David Attenborough, Simon King, Joanna Lumley, Chris Packham, Virginia McKenna and Brian May.

Working together as the Badger Protection League, the wildlife groups - which in addition to the League include the RSPCA, Badger Trust, Viva, and Secret World - have launched a website which highlights five ways in which everyone opposed to the controversial consultation plan can fight the proposals.

The stark message is that unless the government listens to and accepts the anti-cull argument, thousands of healthy badgers could be shot as they emerge from their setts or while they forage in fields and that could happen as early as next May.

Other celebrities backing the Badger Protection League’s campaign include Alan Titchmarsh, Michaela Strachan, Tony Head, Jilly Cooper and Dick and Dom of CBBC fame. Many have been involved with wildlife for most of their lives and are not giving their names lightly to this campaign.

Action by the wildlife groups comes not long after a meeting held at the Zoological Society of London at which leading scientists and ecologists described the proposed badger cull as flawed and said that the science—opposing a badger cull—had been misrepresented in the government’s consultation plan.

An advertising campaign encouraging the public to oppose the slaughter of badgers on Saturday (November 27) in national papers and regional papers in the South West with a circulation of over 5 million.

Dave Williams, chairman of Badger Trust said : “We welcome this initiative, it will add strength to our campaign to stop this unjust proposal from the coalition government. Vaccination is an alternative which does not come with the high risk that the government’s proposal carries. If the government can ignore the science on this subject, we should ask ourselves whether they will take the same attitude on other important subjects?”

Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League, said: "The government's proposals are deeply flawed, deeply unethical, and deeply unpopular with the public. We are delighted to be working with our friends on other organisation to do all we can to make the government see sense and opt for scientifically sound measures to reduce bovine TB, rather than one that is a sop to some in the farming community."